On Jan. 30, 2018, the 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (GGTTI), the most internationally influential think tank ranking system by the Think Tank and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania, was launched in turn by more than 170 institutions in over 100 cities around the world. A great number of prestigious scholars and politicians including the heads of the Brookings Institute, Heritage Foundation, and the other 60 think tanks as well as former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, attended the launching ceremony in Washington, D.C. and New York. The event in China was held in the Penn Wharton China Center.

CCG, which has participated in the GGTTI evaluation and ranking for three consecutive years, moves up its ranking on the “Top Think Tanks Worldwide (U.S. and non-U.S.)” list to No. 91 in 2017 from No. 111th in 2016, and became one of the seven Chinese think tanks and the only independent think tank from China that makes into the top 100.

It is the 11th consecutive year that TTCSP released this world-known annual report on think tank research since its inception by TTCSP Director Prof. James G. McGann. Over the past 11 years, this program has established a rigorous inclusive, objective and fair evaluation system to track and rank global think tanks, seeking a better understanding of the role think tanks play in governments and civil societies and identifying the trend of their development. It helps think tanks enhance their quality, capacity and performance, and guide them to build communications channels between society and government.

Last year, TTCSP invited 7,815 think tanks to participate in the evaluation and ranking. Based on its own evaluation system and survey of over 62,000 journalists, policy makers, think tanks, and public and private donors, it eventually selects the world top 171 think tanks. To insure the quality of the ranking lists and representativeness of the indicators, TTCSP has organized multiple seminars where hundreds of scholars and experts from various academic areas were invited to join the discussion. Eventually, the Brookings Institute remains the top think tank worldwide, followed by Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Beside the global ranking result, GGTTI also includes the other 51 lists in three categories – top think tanks by region, by area of research, and by special achievement, where CCG also improves its ranking from the previous year. For instance, on the list of Top 90 Think Tanks in Asia (China, India, Japan and Republic of Korea), CCG has climbed to No. 22 this year from No. 30, also as the No. 1 Chinese indepdenent think tank. Overall, there are 27 Chinese think tanks ranked on the list.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon to begin their three-day state visit. It is Trump’s first trip to China since taking office earlier this year, making him only the second US President to visit China in his first year after Barack Obama.

As domestic talents flow to these major cities, the first-tier cities face a different task of attracting talent with an international perspective as China carries out the Belt and Road Initiative and moves ahead in economic globalization, said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), one of China’s leading independent think tanks.

Currently, companies like AT&T and Comcast can track user data, unless consumers explicitly opt out by telling companies to stop. But last month, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced new privacy rules that prevent broadband providers from collecting and giving out data on consumers’ web browsing, app use, location and financial information.

In March, the Chinese search engine company Baidu set out on its first overseas college recruitment tour, which included visits to some of California’s top-tier tech schools like UC Berkeley, Stanford, and USC.